The Bloggers of Catan

Catanism, the blog for serious Catan fans. This blog is where Klaus Teuber and the rest of the “Bloggers of Catan” write about new game developments and provide lots of in-depth information about each title.

Age of Darkness -
“The Era of Intrigue” Theme Set
Part 9 of my series of blog posts about The Rivals for Catan had been announced for the beginning of 2011. Unfortunately, the development of the game expansion took longer than originally planned. In order to sufficiently test the cards of the expansion and harmonize them optimally with each other, the release date – and thus, this blog post – was postponed.
Now, in September of this year, the German edition of the first “The Rivals for Catan” expansion has finally been published, and the English edition is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. …

Part 8 – The “Era of Progress” Theme Set and the Duel
Introduction
The “Era of Progress” Theme Game is played with the Theme Set of that name and the basic cards I introduced in part 5 of my series of blog posts about the reform of the Card Game. In the fictitious history of Catan, the environment of this set belongs to the 15th century. …

An Investigative Look Behind the Curtains of Editorial Annihilation of a Social Status
A Cannon Story – Part 1
In 1997, for the first time I held the “Tournament Set for the Card Game” in my hands: the dignified ancestor of today’s Tournament Card Game that enthusiasts now play with highly developed strategies. …

Part 7 – The Era of Turmoil
Introduction
The “Era of Turmoil” Theme Game is played with the Theme Set of that name and the basic cards I introduced in part 5 of my series of blog posts about the reform of the Card Game. In the fictitious history of Catan, the environment of this set belongs to the mid-10th century, which is about 100 years after the first settlers arrived on Catan. …

From Rebecca Gablé’s tales, we now know a lot about the life of the Catanians. One aspect, however, she has withheld from us: Catan is the motherland of soccer*!
This is probably due to the fact that she relied mostly upon English sources.
However, the credibility of these sources may be doubted, as I will demonstrate below. …

Part 6 – The Era of Gold
Introduction
The “Era of Gold” Theme Game is played with the Theme Set of that name plus the basic cards I introduced in my previous blog post. In the fictitious history of Catan, the environment of this set belongs to the Middle Ages and thus chronologically follows the “Era of Turmoil” set. …

At the end of April 2007, I received an e-mail from Catan LLC, the American branch of the German Catan GmbH. Back then, I had already been working as a freelance translator for quite some time, and I used to routinely advertise my services online on various classified ads sites. …

Part 5 – The Introductory Game
Follow-up comments on my last blog posts as well as comments in various forums repeatedly expressed concerns that the revised Card Game might become deprived of its depth, in favor of being easier to play and more “appropriate for the public.”
Well, all those of you who fear for the complexity of the new version may rest assured. …

In the first three parts of this story, I explained how I found The Settlers of Catan through my brother’s family and searched the web constantly for online gaming sites to meet my need. In July 2008, I discovered the Catan Online World, and even though it was entirely in German, I had to become a member.
Chapter Four: …

In Chapters one and two of this story, I explained how I discovered Catan through my brother and his wife who lived in Germany for a short time, and how I found opponents online at German websites that later became unavailable to me.
Chapter Three: Aero Discovers the “World”
Since I had all but given up on real-life opponents, I searched the web for other boardgame sites. …